With the official sunset of Google Reader yesterday, I thought I’d pay a simple homage with a few stories that have come across my screen in the last few months I’ve not yet had time to comment on. The Social Media Reality for SMBs Small businesses who’ve done more than dip their toes into the…
Last week I published a post where we recorded 10 random people’s reaction to Google Local Carousel results. I really found some great takeaways by looking at qualitative instead of quantitative behavior of searchers. After the study though, I wondered what the Click Through Rates of Carousel might be. In our study of 10 we found only…
Since the dawn of Local Search, getting meaningful support for problems with local business listings on Google has been hit or miss. For a long time, the attitude seemed to be that a free product didn’t warrant any support, but the problems that so many SMBs experienced with their listings were so dire that it…
Not a week goes by that I don’t see one of my friends/contacts on Twitter complaining about the state of restaurant websites. Poor usability and hard-to-find information are usually the big problems — specifically, either the lack of a current menu or a menu that’s only available in PDF form. That’s a real problem because,…
A couple weeks ago at Local University Austin, I posed the following questions during my presentation: 1) How many of you have analytics installed on your website? (Answer: About 25%) 2) How many use analytics to make marketing decisions? (Answer: About 5%. “Ouch!”) 3) How many want to take advantage of analytics awesomeness to help…
Our first Local U workshop of the year is in the books, and we all feel like Austin was a great success. We had more than 100 people in each of our two sessions, lots of helpful site clinics, great networking and so much more. Some of our team snapped a few photos during the…
At our latest Local University event in Austin, Texas I was reminded of how powerful individual attention with a small business website and their search engine optimization needs can be. At many of our events, we offer 30-minute private consultations following the 4-hour seminar that allows us to analyze an attendee’s website and provide specific…
We think Local U is a great fit for insurance agents — they’re exactly the type of local/small business we love to help. As it turns out, Progressive Insurance has sent some of its agents to our Local U workshops going back to our first year in 2010. And they’ve sent agents to several more…
Facebook search is getting an upgrade and overhaul, and the local search aspects of it are worth watching. It’s called Facebook Graph Search. It’s considered a work-in-progress (ergo the “beta” label that Facebook gave it) and only a small percentage of Facebook users can access it right now. In a nutshell, Graph Search is a…